Halcyon

Halcyons are medium-sized birds, native to the Blessed Isle and River Province. They have a distinctive appearance, with large crested heads and long dagger-like bills, plumage in shades of blue and slate above and white below, females bearing a rufous band across their bellies.

Halcyon dig tunnels into riverbanks to serve as their nests. They are monogamous birds, sharing equally in the feeding and incubating of their offspring. The birds are most commonly seen perched above bodies of water, searching for their prey (fish, tadpoles, and the like) swimming below. Their eyes are praised for their ability to pierce the surface and follow what goes on beneath the waves. When a target is chosen, the halcyon will dive quickly and directly, stabbing or seizing its prey with its long beak, ascending back to perch above the water and consume its meal.

The halcyon has a number of roles in culture: amongst the Dynasty, the rufous belt of the female bird is referenced in ‘halcyon marriage’, term for a household where the wife is the one who wears the sword belt and the husband is more effete or submissive to her lead. But the halcyon’s major place is as a sign of good weather, a reason to give thanks to the the god of calm days... the bird has no particular power over weather, nor is that god related to the bird in any way but aesthetic, but this association penetrated even the courts of the Shogumate, giving rise to the poetic term ‘halcyon days’ for times of warm calm, free of storms and bad weather, the term eventually taking on a more general meaning of ‘good times’.